The sensitivity and kinetics of amplification techniques such as the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) are limited due to the fact that, using conventional buffers, increasing the concentration of DNA polymerase fails to accelerate the reaction or to increase the yield of amplified product. In situations where sample material is limited, or the target sequence is present in low copy number, this limitation is a significant problem. Especially in diagnostic PCR applications, where amplification is carried out in the presence of background nucleic acids and the target may be present low levels, even down to a single copy, it would be advantageous to use conditions that permit a faster rate of nucleic acid replication with greater product yield.